Aircraft wings are unique geometric structures whose design is directly related to the unique size, payload requirements and purposes of the particular airplanes which employ them. Consistent with this uniqueness, the manufacturer of a given wing design requires the creation of unique and dedicated tooling, typically in the form of assembly jigs and fixtures, for example, and permanent production facilities to manufacture a given wing design. Further, such unique tooling and production facilities must be maintained and retained over the production life span of the airplane. An aircraft manufacturing firm that makes a fleet of aircraft must provide and maintain separate tooling and facilities for each airplane's left and right-hand wing. The investment for new tooling and facilities for each new airplane design commonly exceeds many millions of dollars. For this reason, when a manufacturer is considering instigating a new design, or to make a variant on an existing design, the decision to make the new plane is always influenced by the sizable amount of initial investment required to build new tooling and facilities.
In addition to initial investment, another economic factor associated with existing wing manufacturing techniques is the degree of automation and accessories used in connection with basic tooling, which influences direct labor reductions, quality improvements, and indirect costs. All of these represent ongoing costs to the manufacturer, which are added over and above the initial investment cost of producing tooling and facilities for wing production. The initial investment plus the ongoing costs must be justified by a production/sales rate for each airplane design under consideration, in order to make the design economically feasible or, in other words, profitable.
The invention described herein provides a "generic" or universal wing panel jig that is capable of producing any wing panel for any aircraft, including left and right-hand panels. Aside from the initial investment costs addressed above, the generic wing panel jig disclosed herein also reduces direct and indirect ongoing manufacturing costs and improves the quality and structural integrity of any wing panel manufactured by using the jig, at least in comparison to currently-known wide panel manufacturing methods.
Having "generic" tooling provides the manufacturer with the capability of building any wing by using only one set of tooling. This eliminates duplication in tooling and greatly reduces floor space and other facility requirements. Further, the generic tooling described herein can be amortized over an entire fleet of different airplane models, instead of a single model, which greatly benefits the manufacturer's ability to significantly reduce costs and therefore to compete against overseas competitors who may enjoy reduced labor rates or government subsidies common to other, more socialist forms of governments than we have here in the United States.